The Tortoise and the Hare

A couple of months ago, my dad asked if I had any epic plans for costumes for the girls.  I admitted than I did not.  He suggested that Elaina would make a good little turtle, since she was almost crawling at that point.  I loved the idea, and decided that Chloë and her high energy levels would make a perfect hare.  And so the idea of Tortoise and Hare was born.  My mom found a stuffed rabbit at Goodwill, so I washed it, cut it into pieces and made Chloë's costume.  My dad worked some magic by shaping a tortoise shell out of good ol' paper-mache, we sewed on one of my old belts, and my mom and I went to work painting it.

A few days before halloween, our church had their big annual Fall Carnival, so we dressed the girls in their costumes, and I got out the face paint.

At the Fall Carnival with my very own tortoise and hare.  (Thanks Bryan, for taking all the pictures!)

On her mark...

The Vegetable Toss game.  Chloë did pretty well from about a foot away. 

We stood in line a long time for the archery game.  I tried to help Chloë do it, but she'd never used a bow and arrow before, and wasn't quite sure how to make it all work.  At least she got some candy in the end.

I got up on the stage with both the girls for the first category of the costume contest.  They both fell into the newborn to 2-year-old category.  The infant viking on the right took 1st place, I believe.

The 15-and-up costume category.

We had to get back up on stage for the Group Costume category.

There were some pretty creative group costumes!

We got lots of candy, and had as much fun.  Chloë especially loved it all, and keeps asking for me to do her face paint.